


Hawks and Hallas in the Fade

by Skarias



Series: Andraste's Grace [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: BAMF Hawke, F/F, F/M, Fear Demons (Dragon Age), Mahariel is tired of all this shit, Psychological Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 14:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16097780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skarias/pseuds/Skarias
Summary: In the end, it never really was a choice, something she needed to think about in order to know whether or not it was the right thing to do. Every other time in her life decisions required her to consider, to access the situation and act accordingly.This was different, this time thinking really was just a fancy word for changing her mind, and that was the last thing she wanted to do. She would learn to fly or die trying, she would finish what she started once and for all or be forever forgotten.She would stay behind.





	Hawks and Hallas in the Fade

 

She would've preferred spiders. She would've loved to face spiders.

 

Truth be told she would have preferred anything over what she saw before her. What she saw fall and die over, and over, and over again. The first time the warden saw the image she wanted to scream and jump in front of Bull's axe as he cut down upon the image of her beloved, strong arms behind her only barely managed to hold her back as the demon was cleaved in two.

 

Why did they all have to look like her? Like her in Lothering all those years ago, like her when they confronted Marjolaine in Denerim, like her the day she saw her for the first time in what felt like an eternity inside Skyhold? Why did every single one of these blasted creatures have to look like Leliana?

 

And that _thing_ didn't help one bit, taunting them relentlessly, plucking their fears right out of their mind and laying them out before them. She couldn't wait to thrust her blade down it's throat to shut it up for good. Looking around the warden quickly realized she wasn't the only one that wanted to get the hell out of this forsaken realm.

 

The giant fingers around the Qunari's axe twitched every so often, a light tapping sound just loud enough for her to pick it up over the sounds of their footsteps against the rocky ground. One would think a man that enjoyed staring down dragons in his free time to be without fear. One would quickly learn that everyone had their weaknesses.

 

Trevelyan's gaze would flicker across the landscape every time she heard a sound that hadn't been there before. Even a drop of water that would cascade down the flying rocks high above them and eventually hit the ground with a splash would cause the mage to whip her head around, prepared to throw fire and ice at whatever threat loomed in the shadows and gripping her staff so tight that the colours of her knuckles had long turned into a ghastly shade of white

 

Dorian appeared to be just as on edge as the warden herself, gaze firmly fixed ahead and very careful not to show any indication that this wasn't a perfectly normal day in a perfectly normal world. She wondered if the others could see through her facade as easy as Sarah could read the Tevinter.

 

And then there was Hawke, Marian hadn't said a single word ever since they were thrown in the fade. Her attacks were relentless as they were deadly, casting spell after spell at the never ending assault of demons that clustered their path with terrifying efficiency. Hard eyes never left their target, where others were amazed and unnerved alike looking around the impossible world they wandered in, the Champion's gaze never left the path before them and she was the one the warden feared for the most.

 

"Ah, and if it isn't the praised 'Hero of Ferelden', the fearsome Warden-Commander that oh so heroically ended the blight like the good little warden that she is. I wonder, do you know what you have unleashed upon this world, that the wardens were played just like they always were and always will be?" the nightmare bellowed, the sound of it's voice echoing from every surfacea round them, "It does not matter, soon you will die and not even blood magic will be enough to save you a second time. The Nightingale will burn just as her fictitious prophet did, abandoned and alone like she will always end up. And it will be your fault"

 

Sarah felt a hand on her shoulder, she drew what little comfort she could from it before it vanished again, another heard of demons already charging in the distance. "It's been a while since I've killed something of the likes of you, do tell will your words die in your throat once I rip the head off your body? Or will I have to sever every limb from you to stop you from getting on my nerves? I'd enjoy that last one so much more."

 

-

 

The Nightmare's broken form sunk into the ground, the warden's blade dripped with blood that burned a spot into the stone beneath them every time a droplet made contact with it. The rift was close, their way out of this hell was only meters away if they could only-

 

She never got to finish that thought, a gruesome mixture of spider and demon that towered high before them blocking the only path that could lead towards the rift. The warden's hand moved towards her blade only to freeze on the swords grip the second she came in contact with it, unable to move neither her arms nor her legs, she whipped her head towards Hawke.

 

"I'm sorry, but this is my fight. Corypheus wouldn't be here if I hadn't failed before." the blood mage said, "Tell Anders...tell Anders that I forgave him a long time ago." And with that Hawke charged the demon, Sarah could feel the hold on her body vanish almost instantly, the feeling quickly replaced by someone tugging her in the rift's direction. Her feet moved automatically, her gaze locked in the distance on a lone mage she would likely never see again fighting off impossible odds. Green energy enveloped the warden, the world around her changing rapidly as the fade vanished and was replaced by the walls of Adamant Fortress.

 

-

 

_A few months laters..._

 

Time in the fade was a funny thing, funny in the sense that it didn't really have a meaning in a place that didn't knew day and night cycles or even seasons.

 

Hawke didn't know how long she wandered the lone wastelands of the ever changing realm she could only partly control, in the end it didn't really matter if it had been days, months or even years. What mattered what was happening right now.

 

In a flash of green he appeared, a rift opening right in front of her out of thin air that spat the would-be-god into her world. A smile tucked at the edges of the mage's lips, an expression Marian had almost forgotten but that couldn't have felt more natural in that very moment.

 

A second later the light vanished, leaving behind a figure that had been a man once, corrupted by whatever twisted rituals he had performed on himself over the centuries of his life. A man that had brought suffering and pain everywhere he went. A man that wouldn't survive another day.

 

One hand snaked around her staff as a bright flame lit up in the other, "It's been a long time coming, Corypheus. Ready for round two, asshole?"


End file.
